Lord Ruthven the Vampire — John William Polidori

In the early 1800s, young British aristocrat Aubrey travels through Italy and Greece in the company of the mercurial and fantastic Lord Ruthven. Later, he believes his friend to have been mysteriously slain. But when Ruthven returns from the dead to prey on his sister, he realizes that the enigmatic stranger is none other than a vampire! The character of the Byronesque vampire Lord Ruthven was first created in 1816 by John William Polidori on the same night that Mary Shelley created Frankenstein. This volume includes the original 1819 Polidori novella, a fragment from Lord Byron showing his own take on the character, an 1820 stage adaptation by French author Charles Nodier and an 1821 vaudeville play by Eugène Scribe. The book also includes an all-new story pitting Ruthven against Dracula and Sherlock Holmes by renowned playwright and translator Frank J. Morlock.